Thursday, May 19, 2011

Maine man facing gun charges

In December, 2010 Michael DeMaria's, 43 of Parkman, Maine, wife obtained a restraining order against her husband after the two had an argument and a relative told her DeMaria had threatened to kill her and their son. DeMaria was ordered to turn over his firearms to police.
DeMaria agreed to show police where his guns were and consented to a search of his home. During the search police seized a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, four loaded handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, miscellaneous gun barrels, an improvised explosive device resembling an M-80, eight "grenade Fuzes," and a training hand grenade housing. DeMaria told police he had sold his other guns, including his AR-15s, but had no receipts nor names of the people he sold the guns to.
In a subsequent search of the house police discovered two guns in wall safes hidden in a bathroom. DeMaria was arrested for violation of the protection from abuse order and for failure to turn over the firearms.
Relatives told police DeMaria was obsessed with training to fight against the government, that he would rather die than give up his guns, and that he carried a gun on him at all times and even slept with a gun. It was also reported to police that DeMaria said he had buried "go bags" in strategic locations on his property containing firearms, food, and other equipment he might need to fight the government if they came to get him. Until his arrest for violating the protection from abuse order, DeMaria had no criminal history.
DeMaria was arrested again on Tuesday when he went to attend a divorce hearing in Dover-Foxcroft District Court. The FBI supervisor said DeMaria was arrested based on a court-authorized warrant but decline to elaborate. Prosecutors have asked that DeMaria be held without bail because he poses a danger to the community and is a flight risk, among other reasons.

You keep asking the same question in various forms, namely “what are you doing to address the root cause of the problem.” I answered this question months ago when I said, “There are many causes of violence: domestic abuse, mental illness, poverty, lack of resources, to name a few. Easy access to firearms is also a cause of violence. I choose to work on the latter, assuming and hoping that others are out there working on the former and that combined we will have an impact.”

Sorry but you still don't get it. The firearm isn't a cause of violence; neither is easy access to firearms.

Let's try a thought experiment.

Which room would you rather be in:

a.) a room full of unarmed violent thugs who have been convicted of rape, robbery, murder, assault, etc

or

b.) a room full of armed NRA members

You choose to work on pushing laws that have the least impact on violent crime, have not been shown to be effective anywhere in the United States, and most of all adversely impact the law abiding the most.

You also don't address my first comment. Why do you consider this suspect law abiding when it clearly states he was a drug user?

Every criminal was once a law abiding citizen........until they committed a crime.

The entries on this blog involve people who are legally eligible to purchase and possess guns. These are people whom the gun lobby would refer to as "law abiding citizens." It is the contention of the gun lobby that stricter gun laws would only hurt these law abiding citizens.